Landmark Tower and Chinatown

1998-07-17

My friend and x−roommate Yuki took me to Chinatown and Landmark Tower in Yokohama.

Yokohama's Chinatown is similar to other Chinatowns like in LA and San Francisco but I'd say this one is more busy and more interesting since it seems to cater more to foot traffic.  Lots of small stores and restaurants.

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Here is the biggest Bow (Mana Pua) I've ever seen.

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This place makes nothing but Bow.

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Yuki and her sister didn't like seeing duck heads.  That's one thing I think many people or at least me was surprised about.  Since Japanese people eat raw fish and other Asian cultures, especially Chinese, seem to eat many different things, I think I always thought that Japanese people would eat almost anything but I'm finding that many Japanese people are fairly picky eaters.  They may choose different foods to be picky about than an American would but many are still very picky.  For example my other x−roommate Rieko clearly was not interested in trying Hawaiian foods after seeing them.   (Bikkuri shita!)

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Next we went to Landmark Tower.  This is a very new area of Yokohama with many new buildings including Landmark Tower which is the tallest building in Japan.  It also has the fastest elevators in the world (and has a certificate from Guinness).  It takes about 10 seconds to go from the first floor to the 67th.  That's faster than my dorm elevator goes from the 1st to the 4th floor.

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Here's the view from the tower.  If you look closely you can see a swimming pool in the bottom right.

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Here's the nearest train station.  I think it's Sakuragicho.

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Another side

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Below the tower is an kind of amusement area and also two large shopping centers.

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One of the shopping centers is under the building next door and beside that building is a fun zone with a few rides and stuff.

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That interesting building at the end in top right is a Hotel.  Also, in the top left is the Yokohama Convention Center.

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And here's the port of Yokohama.  Across Tokyo Bay is Chiba.

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According to Yuki these pictures are very famous.  That's her sister Tomoko and Tomoko's boyfriend Yasu.

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Who made this sculpture?  I've seen one in America.

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From the bottom looking up at Landmark Tower.

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Below the tower is some kind of rock garden.  I think it's called Beer Plaza.

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This was cool.  In the funzone they had these robotic rides.  They are kind of like the kiddie rides you find in front of K−mart but they actually walk around.   There was a panda, a bear, an elephant and a hippo.

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Afterwards we went to Royal Host which is a coffee shop restaurant chain like Carrow's or Coco's but in Japan they had Curry as their special.  Yum!

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